Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League

[AndyKurosaki]

Ok. So, the knives are well and truly out for this one. IGN has been quite savage, though it didn’t really help itself by saying “We don’t like killing the Justice League”, in a game where that’s literally the name of it.

 

I loved the Arkham games, but right from the start, it’s clear this is a different kettle of fish entirely. 
 

You start of as Deadshot, one of the 4 playable characters. He has a jet pack, which he uses to zip around the area. After killing a few enemies, you switch to King Shark, the ‘tank’ of the team. Shark doesn’t use equipment to get around, he can do a massive jump, then dash in the air up to 3 times. Next up, is Captain Boomerang. His mode of transport, teleporting using boomerang’s(funnily enough) took some getting used to, and didn’t quite feel right to me. Finally, you briefly play as Harley Queen, who uses a drone/whip gun to ricochet over the place. If Boomerang felt weird to control, Harley was the toughest of all, in my opinion. Soon after her section, you’re finally given the choice of who you want to control. I went Shark, as being a tank is my jam. 

After that, a massive battle ensues, where you have to survive for 2 minutes. Amanda Waller, your ‘boss’ says she will teleport you out of there in a few minutes. But then advises that “You have a shield, but it’s not self recharging”. As this is to discourage “Hanging around”. The only way to recharge your fairly low shield, is to shoot enemies in their feet, then melee attack them. Some enemies are shielded, which is only broken by a melee hit.

 

Ive got a little further than that, but the urge to return to Infinite Wealth became too great. 
 

I can tell you one thing that is bullshit: the “always online” requirement. Ok, so they’ve said they’re working on a patch to remove that. But prior to the game’s full release yesterday, there has been two occasions where sever issues have rendered this utterly unplayable. And that just sucks balls.

 

I’ve already encountered Kevin Conroy’s Batman, and it’s just a powerful performance as he always was. I’ve seen fans saying that this is an “insult” to his character. Personally, I feel that’s bang out of order. To many people, Kevin WAS Batman, and he wouldn’t have done it, if he didn’t believe in it.

 

It’s most definitely not an ‘Arkham’ combat game, despite there already being several nods to that series’ universe. Still, from what I’ve played so far, it seems decent enough. How it will fare going on, well, we will see…

[Nag]

I'm probably never going to play this game so I've just watched the Batman scene... I'm not sure this needed to be set in the Arkham universe and I can't remember how Arkham Knight ends but I can't really agree that it's massively disrespectful to the characters... clues in the name I guess.

 

I'll probably seek out the scenes to the end of the other Justice League members at some point.

[mmmark]

I’ve yet to see review comparing this to Gotham Knights. Probably because no one remembers that game. SS looks much more polished with more varied gameplay, if only slightly.

 

I can see myself picking this up this year when it’s £15.

[AndyKurosaki]

Oh I remember Gotham Knights. I remember everyone basically tearing it a new arsehole, a lot of them not even bothering to play it (which is already happening with this). GK wasn’t up

to the Arkham standard, but it wasn’t a bad game at all. I enjoyed it enough.

 

IGN just really don’t like this game. I usually don’t mind their coverage, but they’ve come out as right bell-ends about this. The “we don’t like killing the Justice League” comment was utterly ridiculous, and that same article came out with “The Flash is too fast”. No shit, Sherlock. Then, just before release, they did a really poor clickbait article, saying “It’s already been slashed to £35 in the UK”. Which was just referring to a single EBay seller, not a reputable game store. Erm, not that there’s many of those left now. 
I’ve not bothered to read their ‘5 out of 10’ review, and I’m not going to, as quite frankly, they’ve come across as right dickheads about this game. 
 

Rocksteady are a reputable developer. They didn’t want to just do yet another Arkham game, and I think that’s fair enough. As I said earlier, I haven’t played much of it just yet (though as I remain on long term sick, I will be doing). I’m keeping an open mind about it. 

[mmmark]

16 hours ago, AndyKurosaki said:

a lot of them not even bothering to play it (which is already happening with this)

GK is a very 5/10 game. It’s just not engaging or varied, especially going through it alone. The pacing is akin to a grandads sunday afternoon drive in a hatchback to find somewhere that still sells hoover bags.
 

Having watched a few reviews this looks just a little better due to looks and combat. The ign score looks valid imo if indeed a majority of the time is spent taking out enemies on rooftops. But I won’t be poo pooing it until I try it out for myself. Battlefield 2042 was a mess at launch but has become absolute blast, yet you’ll still find people that never played it at all slagging it off.

[AndyKurosaki]

No, I can’t say I agree. IGN has had a raging hate boner for this game, for months. It’s legitimately cringe worthy. One of their staff has gone on Twitter specifically to spoil the ending, saying “I’m not going to finish the game myself, I don’t care, here’s the ending”. Sorry, but that’s absolutely bollocks behaviour. Imagine if they did that to Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, FF7 Rebirth, or literally anything. Where’s the journalistic integrity in that???

 

To me, there’s utterly nothing worse than people slagging something off, but not playing it for themselves. They’re just jumping on the bloody bandwagon. IGN have compared it to Square’s Avengers game. If that’s not an insult, I don’t know what is. 
 

I’ve seen so many people already slagging SS off. And it’s blatantly obvious they haven’t played it, they’re saying it’s shite without playing it for themselves, for even a second. 
 

To me, something 5/10 is stuff like Saints Row 2022. It functions, but it’s tedious bullshit. I solo-ed Gotham Knights, and felt it was alright. But of course, scores are subjective, and ultimately kind of meaningless. Balders Gate 3 got multiple 9/10 out of 10’s, and I personally found that game to be so bloody boring. 
 

To each their own. I won’t be able to really form an opinion on this myself until I’m further into it. But I genuinely don’t give a flying fuck what IGN thinks about this game, as they’re being absolute cockwombles. 

[Maryokutai]

For what it's worth, user reviews on Steam and Xbox are relatively positive across the board. I wasn't really looking forward to this as I think rocksteady's talents are wasted on an open world GAAS, but it's blatantly obvious a lot of people made their mind up about this months before release and most seem unwilling to backtrack. I'm not even entirely innocent in that regard, though I've always had it in the back of my head to give it a try sooner or later (as mentioned, not sooner than when that offline patch gets released though). And while I think on the consumer end of the spectrum that kind of behaviour is unfortunately expected at this point, I'd have thought the press going in with a bit more of an open mind. But on DF's video John said he wasn't expecting much and was pleasantly surprised, so it's not all black and white at least.

 

The entire thing is a bit reminiscent of the whole Mass Effect Andromeda situation from back then. Really solid game that got shred to pieces because it wasn't on the same level as its predecessors and had some wonky pre-release footage making the rounds. But at least that one didn't get spoiled to death on social media (likely as it took 80 hours to finish, that's beyond the time commitment for 'hate players').

 

21 hours ago, AndyKurosaki said:

Rocksteady are a reputable developer. They didn’t want to just do yet another Arkham game, and I think that’s fair enough.

 

I still don't think this is a pure rocksteady decision. Maybe my crystal ball is cynical, but the entire GAAS stuff, always-online nonsense, and the resulting impact it has on some gameplay elements (characters being mostly interchangeable) smells a lot like corporate business decision anno 2015. I can see the pitch for it being Suicide Squad and the overall premise being rocksteady's, but I think this was very much shaped by suits, not by designers.

[DANGERMAN]

I'm not meaning to take away from anyone's enjoyment of it, if you're playing it and enjoying it then that's better than the alternative. There's not even a "but" here, I've not played it, I quite possibly never will, and I know there's plenty of times I've loved a game critics haven't (Sonic Frontiers leaps to mind, especially as people seem to default to hating Sonic games, so I do get your annoyance), and this looks better than it did a year ago 

 

I watched Eurogamer and Nextlander play a chunk, both seemed to love the characters (King Shark seems great), and quite like the traversal, but both seemed to get very tired of the combat, none of them particularly wanted to carry on playing it. It might be that the game gets a load better, but there's 5 reviewers who played a couple of hours of the game and didn't want to play more, it hardly seems beyond the realms of possibility that others felt the same 

 

Maybe just stay away from IGN if they annoy you this much Andy, but out of interest I looked for that tweet you mentioned, and I found this, it's the article about the price drop 

Quote

There's definitely still a benefit to buying physical games, especially when there are deals like this to be found only days before release on new AAA titles like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (or other new titles like Tekken 8). Suicide Squad is down to just £43.96 from trusted seller The Game Collection via eBay right now, using promo code JANPAY20, which is over £26 off the RRP.

That seems pretty reasonable to me. It's not just a random small seller like you imply, most people on here that buy physical buy from them 

 

While I'm not posting looking for an argument, I will say you seem perfectly happy laying in, and everyone else laying in, to Silent Hill 2, which you and no one else has played. It might be that Silent Hill 2 comes out and is shit, but I'm not seeing why one is fine and the other isn't. Not that I think there's anything wrong with having concerns about that game, same as there isn't for this.

[AndyKurosaki]

Yeah, it’s not an argument, you make a valid point there. And yes, I am quite negative about Silent Hill 2 Remake, and have my hopes for it set pretty low. Perhaps it’s because I haven’t liked any of Bloober Team’s games at all. If it was any other developer, I’d be really excited about it. But when it’s a team that’s made nothing but bollocks, I can’t help but pass judgment on it. Is that too harsh? Yeah, I guess it probably is. 
 

And to be honest, i don’t really have that much of an issue with IGN. I’ve often watched their reviews, and found them informative. It’s just their reaction to this, that I find a bit baffling. The preview that ripped it to shreds recently genuinely did harp on that killing the Justice League “doesn’t feel very nice”. And I feel it’s a bit of a nonsensical point. The previewed said that “Even if it’s an alternative reality, it still doesn’t feel nice”. Now I don’t know what the crack with SS’s story mode is, I’ve not played it enough yet. But it just seems a bit of a bizarre reaction. Hell, they probably don’t want to read ‘Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe’ then (though they should, as it’s one of Garth Ennis’ best works). 
 

I dunno. It just seems that whereas most games can get a bad review, and then ditched, IGN seems determined to crucify this. They recently did an article basically saying “Kevin Conroy’s Batman is wasted in this, and it’s an insult to his character”. And that just feels off to me. The man died, he can’t defend himself. But for decades, he put his heart and soul into the character. So it kinda feels harsh, some of the stuff they’re coming out with. But yeah, I can just ignore it. 
 

Anyway. In regards to the actual game. From the 4 hours I’ve played so far, all solo, I’ve been having fun with it. The constant banter/bickering between the Squad has at times been genuinely funny. Kinda reminds me of the Guardians Of The Galaxy game in that regard.

[DANGERMAN]

It's rare, but it's nice when something comes along that looks bad then turns out to be way better than people expected. I'd argue Sonic Frontiers was that funnily enough, but the king is probably Doom 2016. So I suppose there's always hope for Silent Hill 😆

[AndyKurosaki]

Oh absolutely. There’s a part of me that really wants Silent Hill 2 to succeed. I bought a PS2 back in the day specifically to play it. I absolutely loved it, and got all the endings. It’s one of my favourite games of all time. I’ve not played it since Konami’s piss poor PS3 port of it.

 

If it turns out good, I’ll be absolutely thrilled. Guess we’re going to find out soon enough…

[one-armed dwarf]

I dunno, 'Punisher kills the Marvel Universe' sounds like something worth giving a wide berth if you ask me 🤔

[AndyKurosaki]

Honestly, it’s ace. It was my introduction to the dark humour of Garth Ennis (I love his work with Preacher, The Boys, and his Marvel Knights run of Preacher with Steve Dillon).

Instead of the mob killing Frank Castle’s

family, they’re accidentally killed in a crossfire battle with the X-men. Frank kills several of them in retaliation, and gets arrested for murder. He gets sprung out by a vengeful group of civilians that have been maimed/suffered collateral damage due to battles between superheroes and villains. They give Frank one demand: Kill them all. And hilarity ensues. Well ok, not so much hilarity, more “your favourite Marvel characters getting brutally murdered in increasingly creative ways”. 
I enjoyed it, but hey ho.

[mfnick]

After the Arkham games and 8 years what we get is a “ok” one of these that deserves all the extra ire it gets IMO. Even if it’s just to give publishers thinking about doing this shit a message. 

[AndyKurosaki]

I must admit, I wasn’t thrilled when Warner Bros came out with “Let’s churn out nothing but live service games”. As they can be godawful, Avengers had a great campaign, but after that, it was shite.

 

I haven’t played this enough to form a firm opinion one way or the other yet. Once I have, I’ll update. 😊

[Maf]

I heard about the ending

 

Spoiler

So at the end of the game the JLA are alive and captured on a ship. It seems like in some DLC the Squad will be rescuing them. Which honestly makes me feel better about the whole thing. The one thing that put me off was killing the heroes. I always avoid comic stories like that, and the game is no different. But now I would play it

 

[mmmark]

The beginning of this game is quite poor. It does that whole you’re probably wondering how we got here vibe and goes back one week after a short tutorial of all 4 characters.

 

The actual start after that is much more polished. Should have just started there. And that’s pretty much where I am. 
 

I chose deadshot btw but I *think* you can swap characters anytime?

 

Sometimes it looks really nice, other times just pretty good. There is no graphics/performance options in the menus. I cleared 100gb but it’s only 49.

 

 

[AndyKurosaki]

I believe you can choose characters, but I’m not sure how. That’s one thing the intro doesn’t tell you. I’m going with King Shark, as I like heavy machine guns, and tanking damage is my style.

[mmmark]

On 04/02/2024 at 16:26, AndyKurosaki said:

I believe you can choose characters, but I’m not sure how. That’s one thing the intro doesn’t tell you. I’m going with King Shark, as I like heavy machine guns, and tanking damage is my style.

It’s just left on d pad. They reveal it early on to switch to boomerang because he wants to speak to penguin the most and that boosts your stats. You can ignore that though I think. 
 

Had a couple of times it’s gotten stuck on the loading screen but the game has started in the background which is annoying but twice isn’t a biggy. 
 

I like this a lot more now than initial opening gameplay experience. It’s certainly better than Gotham Knights and a different league to the god awful Saints Row. It looks beautiful, the writing is fun and the gunplay can be addictive. 
 

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[AndyKurosaki]

I am going to get back into this fairly soon. The death of my beloved Coco kinda threw me off track, and I’ve mostly been playing LAD: Infinite Wealth to cheer myself up.